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DAVIES OKEOWO'S UNTOLD STORY x TWO GIFTS

Ahh! It's the third series of #UntoldStories and I am super stocked about
this interview for many reasons.

Can you guess? The first
two people to guess right would win a gift from me. (You can answer in
the comments section)

Davies is an exceptional
person, a go-getter and there's so much to learn from him! If you don't learn
something at the end of the interview, say it in the comment section but if you
do learn a thing or two will you promise to not just comment what you learnt
but share with everyone you know?

Deal?

That settled; let's go
straight to today's interview.

Hello Davies, how are
you doing? Please introduce yourself

I am doing fine thank
you Olori. My name is Davies Okeowo. I am a business strategist and
accountant. I am the CEO -Enterprise Hill, a firm that provides business
structure and financial advisory to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. I am also the winner of Next Titan Season Two and a very proud Nigerian.

Not so many people
know this but when you were going for The Next titan this is what you told me ‘Dotun I am going for the next titan and I am going to win.' Did you say this
for just saying sake or did you know for sure that you would win?

When I was going for the
Next Titan I had a certain confidence in me. I had this conviction that I was
going to win. I don’t know where it came from, I am not quite sure, but I
remember that even at the auditions before I was selected out of thousands of
people that applied I just had the confidence that I was going to win and I
guess there was some divine touch to it because that confidence got me through
the auditions, the boot camp and into the house. I got a little bit over
confident at some point and I had a rude awakening but glory to God I won
the show.

It is one thing to say
‘I will win The Next Titan’ many people would have said that, but it is another
thing to go into the house and face all the stress and ‘wahala.’ Was there a
point you were like ‘I can’t do this’ and how did you get over it?

Well there was a point I
kinda gave up. After all of the confidence inspired performances to get
into house, I was very fired up that I was going to win. The first task came
and my team lost but I did well, the second task I did my best , but my team
lost, the third task my team lost, the fourth task my team lost again.

This was a month into
the show already, I had never won a task, I was the only person in the house
that hadn’t won a task. I mean after every loss I would get fired up and say
‘next time we must win’ and I will do all I can but we would just fall short
one way or the other so after the fourth task I just told myself ‘I don’t care
anyone. If we win fine, if we lose and I get fired it Is okay.’

I had been on the
eviction row about three times in a row and I just thought hmmm hmmm if it
happens fine, it doesn’t no problem.

As we began the fifth
task we had a session with Mr. Bola Akindele, we were doing a task for his company that week and as we began the meeting, he started briefing us about the task
with a little bit of pep talk that sounded like it was just for me. He said we
shouldn’t give up no matter how often we get thrown down or rejected. He said
‘just keep going.’

I left that meeting with
renewed enthusiasm and guess what, that was the first task I won! This laid the
foundation for winning the subsequent tasks and the finals.

You deal with SMEs,
what are two things a small business needs to succeed. There are so many in the
country, we could use some help.

I’d say the willpower to
succeed. This is because regardless of the challenges an SME faces what will
determine whether it succeeds or fails is the attitude of the entrepreneur so
if the attitude of the entrepreneur is 'mehn this industry is too tough I can’t
deal and all of those stuff,' the business obviously is going to fail and for
good reason because everybody is going to blame all of the external environment
but if the attitude of the entrepreneur is ‘I will find a solution, I will make
this business work, I have invested a lot of money, time and life so I will
ensure that it works well,’ the universe will provide a solution.

The second thing I would
say helps a lot of SMEs succeed would be the discipline to keep records and
trust me this is fundamentally important and not many people do it. If
you have proper financial records or proper business data it aids your decision
making. You’d be looking at what has happened, facts, current opportunities
and using them to make decisions as opposed to when most of us just have guess
work or 'gestimations' like I like to call it or sometimes you just think up an
idea ‘oh I think if we do this, it is going to be fine’ but you have not even
checked from your data, the last thing you did , how you performed I mean I am
just trying to talk in general terms here, if you want to succeed as an
entrepreneur especially here in Nigeria, you need to begin to keep proper
financial records.

There are a number of
us who were not born rich hence we did not have some opportunities our rich
friends had. Talk to us about a period when you were just discouraged.

I also had very very
humble beginnings. I think I never really looked bemused or I never really
aspired to having those things my friends had. I guess the first time such a thought crept
into my head was my university days you know and that was a struggle but I
thank God he put us through. I have had my fair share of challenges, my fair
share of discouraging times, I have had times of having to borrow and pay fees
at the deadline, I've had days when I had to walk for miles just to attend a certain training. I have had my fair share but hey, we just keep going on.

·

Before Enterprise Hill
there were a number of your businesses (chief hustler) that didn’t survive how
did you feel when your businesses failed?

Well before Enterprise
Hill, I had a number of businesses that didn’t work out, one of it was
Flytitude, which was an informal education company. I never felt anything
because I never gave room to feeling. Here's why, I kept at that business even
when it wasn’t working out. I ran Flytitude for 11 months and I did not make a
Naira in sales, I mean I didn't sell one package.

I tried hard, I kept
going at it and was not ready to back down. I believed in what I was doing
and kept going at it. It wasn’t making money
until my mentor Maureen Iyasele, the CEO Jobmag helped me identify the fact
that I had this idea which is now Enterprise Hill, I had the skill to do it
because I trained as an accountant and the passion for entrepreneurship because
I had learned a lot about it, I was willing to help a lot of entrepreneurs
and the market was there.

There were a lot of entrepreneurs who needed what I was
offering. She helped me see that. It was like a light bulb gone in my head and
at that point I shifted my attention from Flytitude to Enterprise Hill. I would say
it ended by virtue of the birth of Enterprise Hill so I never really had time
to think about it. In fact I think I am going to do
something with that business because I still believe it is going to work but
right now, Enterprise Hill is the sole focus.

As a CEO, you must be pretty busy. Everyone seems to be busy
these days. What is the place of friendship in the life of a young
entrepreneur?

Friendships are very
important in the life of a young entrepreneur. I am a big follower of
a gentle man named Debola Wiliams and he talks a lot about the power of
networks. He doesn’t just talk a lot about it; he exhibits the power of
networks. His life is a testament to what networks can do; his achievements are
a testament to what networks can do and I am very much aware of the fact that
friendships are incredibly important because yeah you get very busy but it is
important to make time for friends. If you have the right set of friends, they
would understand your work; they would understand your dedication to your
vision, they would understand the need for you to work extremely hard to get
certain things done and they will be there as friends to help you, support you
through the process as a young entrepreneur. If your friends complain all the
time ‘oh you don’t have time for us, you just forgot us, I don’t even know what
wrong with you, we are not important, is it only your business?’ please change
friends. You need friends that will inspire you, challenge you and motivate you
when you are down. Friends that will tell
you you are not working hard enough after you pulled a twenty one hour day
working, they'd tell you there's still three more hours, those are the kinda
friends you need, you need people heading in the same direction as you, you
need people who are inspired, people that will challenge you to be the very
best. Having those people in your life is incredibly important.

Can you tell us the
name of one young person with an incredible story that has blessed you?

Haaaa one young person
with an incredible story that has blessed me.... I know quote a number
of young people with very good stories.

Lemme see; Remi Owadokun
because her story really just feeds into the narrative of the things I want to talk about and that is -the desire to improve. Take action and
be the very best version of yourself. Remi at one point in her life was just
pretty much clueless as to exactly what she wanted to do, she was overweight and
she was just jumping from industry to industry, career to career, you know what
happens to these people that are multi talented but through her drive and
desire to be the best version of herself she is a bestselling author. She runs total makeover program, an amazing online program. Her story
just gets me all the time, to see the way she inspires people and to think that
at some point in her life she desperately needed inspiration is nothing short
of remarkable.

You are pretty
confident, have you ever been afraid, like really really afraid? What did you
do

I get afraid a lot of
times but fear is an emotion instigated by things that happen within the
environment so I definitely get fearful but I just never let it stick. I never
let it become a permanent experience. I found out that if you are afraid of
something the best way to deal with it is face it confidently. If you confront, it will dissolve like it was never there. I get over confident sometimes and
I become a bit cocky. I do get afraid and confront myself. If I apply myself to
it I know I will overcome. If it doesn’t work I just go to Jesus and say Father
what is happening? I am doing my best here; He always helps.

Mentorship! What do
you have to say to young people who complain of not knowing how to find mentors
or talk to them?

Well, any young person
that complains about not knowing how to find mentors is not doing the right
thing. Let's take a sample poll: raise your had if
somebody has ever given you unsolicited advice before. I am dead certain that
everyone would raise their hands. Nigerians! We love giving advice, we love
helping people with ideas. Nigeria is a place where people have problems with
their marriage and do marriage counseling; it’s remarkable. Mentorship is
everywhere! You'd find people willing to give you directions and share their
experience with you. It’s either you are looking for the
wrong things or looking for the wrong people or aspiring to be more when you’ve
not maximized all you have currently.I hear a lot of people to say
I want Fela Durotoye to mentor me personally and there is that gentleman in
your church or work place that is a growing speaker doing some amazing things and
you're thinking oh he’s my colleague I can’t speak to him. No! Mentorship
doesn’t have to be from those people we look up to, you can get mentored by
your peers or younger people. This is my submission and I am not ashamed. Anyone who
complains of not knowing how to find mentors or talk to them is just not
doing the right thing, may not be looking for the right mentors. Remi Owadokun actually wrote a book on mentorship; you should check
it out.

Yep we've gotten to one of my favoirite parts of the #UntoldStories interview:

The answers they give to these questions would help keep them in check, reminding them of what they still have to achieve and one day we hope they read this interview again and smile at how fat they've come. Shall we?😊

One day my company will…

One day my company will
be the most effective business development firm in every developing economy across
the world. We are going to be one of the greatest business consulting firms
ever. Our operations are aimed at SMEs in developing economies and we will definitely achieve that.

·

One day Davies will…

One day Davies will die
and make heaven, yes . Because definitely I know I am going to be a governor in Nigeria, great entrepreneur, make a lot of money but that which is not in my
control that I pray for is to die well at an old age and make heaven.

Was that insightful or what? 😊😊😊
Don't forget what we talked about earlier, the first two people to guess why I am super stocked about this interview would win a gift from me. (You can answer in the comments section)Much LoveOloriadedotun!

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About Me

Hi! I am Adedotun Adejoorin! I love to be referred to as Oloriadedotun. I am a writer, blogger, and a leader, I believe strongly in helping young people fulfil purpose! I love to help people become better, especially through my write-ups. I am proudly Nigerian. I enjoy reading, cooking, singing and meeting new people. I am not a perfect person but I get better everyday! I am a Nation builder.